THERE is no chance of Federico Macheda being allowed to get carried away with his new status as a Manchester United super sub as long as Gary Neville is around.

For the second weekend running, Macheda came off the bench to rescue United, following up his brilliant last gasp winner against Aston Villa with the decisive strike in Saturday’s triumph at Sunderland.

After such a startling introduction to life at the highest level, the 17-year-old could be forgiven for letting his emotions run riot.

The pictures of Macheda with a gaggle of female admirers that have appeared on Facebook suggest the young Italian is not exactly shy.

But goalkeeper Ben Foster revealed Neville will ensure the former Lazio academy star is kept in check.

“He should be OK,” said the former Wrexham goalkeeper.

“Kiko is quite a level-headed lad but I don’t think there are too many in the dressing room that would let him get carried away with himself.

“Gary Neville puts his foot down on anything like that.”

In fact, Sir Alex Ferguson had a quiet chat with Macheda’s parents last week, aware of the impact the forward had made and the attention now set to be heaped on him.

Not that there are many in the United dressing room who are inexperienced in that department. And, for all the delight at Macheda’s goal, claims the teenager meant to turn home Michael Carrick’s long-range shot are being treated with caution.

“He says he guided it in,” revealed Foster.

“He said it was a deft touch but I don’t think many of the lads believe him.”

Few gave Sunderland much chance against the champions and for 20 minutes the game looked likely to be a procession.

Nemanja Vidic had already had a header cleared off the line by Danny Collins when Paul Scholes glanced Wayne Rooney’s cross past the stranded Craig Gordon.

But Sunderland, without a win in six games, responded gamely and gained the upper hand as the half drew to a close, with Djibril Cisse forcing a fingertip save from Foster and Carlos Edwards’ driven cross deflected against a post by former team-mate Jonny Evans before half-time.

They got their reward within 10 minutes of the restart when Foster failed to collect Teemu Tainio’s cross under pressure from Kenwyne Jones and the striker stabbed home his first goal since February 7 from the loose ball, but it counted for little as Macheda stole the points.

Black Cats boss Ricky Sbragia was particularly pleased with the way strikers Jones and Djibril Cisse, whose partnership has been the subject of a season-long debate, answered his call to arms.

He said: “Kenwyne and Djibril have been criticised an awful lot, but they worked extremely hard together and with a little bit more luck we could have got another goal.”